Category: Online Video

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Golden Ration and now THIS!

(AKA say no to vertical video)

Golden Ratio in opposition to ever changing ratio for SM and hand held devices.
Golden Ratio vs. New Ratio

For millennia, learned men (and women, no doubt) have been infatuated with the mathematical beauty in music, art, architecture and geometry.

The name they gave to it:  The Golden Ratio. 

Fast forward a few decades and we get this mess:

I’m only being facetious.    I’m sure this lady does grand work.  It seems to be the case.  But as a film school graduate and incurable cinemaphile, I’m still a hard line 16:9-er  (cinematic  ratio for wide screen).     It’s simply more dramatic and artistic.   Not to mention being  the new norm after the 50 year pan/scan abortion  which was 4:3 box TVs, pft!

I’m curiously looking at these ratios and sizes and how best to display them on the de-facto device,  your fondle-block.   The little wonder in your pocket.  You know,  your phone.  (Have anyone noticed we don’t even call them smart phones any more?)  Where will it end?

For now, I’m drawing a hard line at vertical video.  HARD NO! from me.

IDK man.  Ask me again in 30 years. 

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Ethnography

Ethnography is the systematic study of people and cultures. It is designed to explore cultural phenomena where the researcher observes society from the point of view of the subject of the study.   An ethnography is a means to represent graphically, through video documentation or in writing the culture of a group.
 

Who has read the book by Paco Underhill, 
Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping?

There is a revised edition  out for the internet-era.  I cannot wait to get my nose in one.   Having said that, the new edition is already more than a decade old.    It will be a curious read.  

After disruption there is a reversion to the norm. 

For TV and video producers this is the worse of times and the best of times.    Tech is cheap, the tools of the trade is great and the resources on how to use them is ample.    But what is missing?    Experience, maybe?   A deeper understanding of the old systems gave form to the new?

Let me break it down for you

Before we shoot a single frame, we take keywords from the provided script and see how they will behave as search phrases.  Below is a screen grab from a company that we used to do work for.    This company;  like many others at the time, moved all their media in-house.  There is nothing wrong with such a move per say, as long as it works.  In this case, it seems to me,  that it does not.

The Production value is great, but the view count tells a different story.

 

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Textbook Talks

This women is firing pearls with an Uzi. The video below is about how to do a good TED talk, and present it in the best possible way. Presenters and producers should be able to glean allot from it. Enjoy.

Below is one of the TED videos I shot and edited. This is an example of the hardest one I had done. Despite issues out of our control, like lighting design, this speaker had too much words over too many images all at the same time. So the choice for the editor, me, was to show either the presenter or the images….. or both. The people at TED hated this cut, and I honestly do not blame them. It simply does not have the look and feel of a TED video. But the lesson learnt was this:

A TED talk must start as a TED talk to end up as a TED Talk.

(I’m talking about visualization and planning, in case you missed the point.)